Tuesday, January 01, 2013

2013 Stargazing Events: Comets, Eclipses, & Meteor Showers Not To Miss In New Year

By: Joe Rao
Published: 12/28/2012 12:18 PM EST on SPACE.com

Jan. 21: Very Close Moon/Jupiter Conjunction
For North Americans, this is a real head-turner, one easily visible
even from brightly lit cities. A waxing gibbous moon, 78-percent
illuminated, will pass within less than a degree to the south of Jupiter,
the largest planet in our solar system. (For reference, your closed
fist held out at arm's length covers 10 degrees of the sky.) These two bright luminaries will make their closest approach high in the
evening sky for all to see. What’s even more interesting is that this
will be the closest moon-Jupiter conjunction until the year 2026! [Amazing Photos: Jupiter and the Moon]

Feb. 2 to 23: Best Evening View of MercuryMercury,
the "elusive" innermost planet, will travel far enough from the glare
of the sun to be readily visible in the western sky, soon after sunset.
On the evening of Feb. 8, Mercury will skim within less than 0.4 degrees
of the much-fainter planet, Mars. Mercury will arrive at its
greatest elongation from the sun on Feb.16. It will be quite bright
(-1.2 to -0.6 magnitude) before this date and will fade rapidly to +1.2
magnitude thereafter.(Astronomers measure the brightness of sky objects
using magnitude, a reverse scale in which lower numbers correspond to
brighter objects. Negative magnitudes denote exceptional brightness.)

March 10 to 24: Comet PANSTARRS at Its Best! Comet PANSTARRS,
discovered in June 2011 using the Pan-STARRS 1 Telescope at Haleakala,
Hawaii, is expected to put on its best show during this two-week period.
During this time, the comet will also be near its closest approaches to
the sun (28 million miles, or 45 million kilometers) and Earth (102
million miles, or 164 million km). While Comet PANSTARRS was a very dim and distant object at the time
of its discovery, it has brightened steadily since then. It still
appears on target to reach at least first magnitude and should be
visible low in the west-northwest sky shortly after sunset. On the
evening of March 12, the comet will be situated 4 degrees to the right
of an exceedingly thin crescent moon.

April 25: Partial Lunar Eclipse
This will be a very minor partial lunar eclipse,
with the moon's uppermost limb merely grazing the Earth's dark, umbral
shadow. At mid-eclipse, less than 2 percent of the moon's diameter will
be inside the dark shadow. The Eastern Hemisphere (Europe, Africa,
Australia and most of Asia) will have the best view. This lunar eclipse will not be visible from North America.

May 9: Annular Eclipse of the Sun
During annular solar eclipse (also
known as a "Ring of Fire" eclipse), the long, umbral shadow cone of the
moon is too short to reach the Earth. In angular size, the moon's disk
appears about 4.5 percent smaller than the disk of the sun. So, the
effect is like placing a penny atop a nickel: a ring of sunlight remains
visible surrounding the moon. The shadow path from where the
ring can be seen runs for thousands of miles, but will get no wider than
107 miles (172 km) at the point of greatest eclipse. Much of the path
falls over the Pacific Ocean, but at or soon after local sunrise, it
will slice across a part of northern Australia (where it will be the
morning of May 10) and the extreme eastern tip of Papua New Guinea,
along with some of the nearby Solomon Islands. At the point of
greatest eclipse, the ring phase will last 6 minutes, 4 seconds.
Hawaiians will see a partial eclipse when, at 3:48 p.m. Hawaii time, the
moon will obscure about 32 percent of the sun's disk.

May 24 to 30: Dance of the Planets
Mercury, Venus and Jupiter will provide a fascinating show low in the
west-northwest twilight sky soon after sunset. They will seemingly
shuffle around each other, changing their positions noticeably from one
evening to the next. The two brightest planets, Venus and Jupiter,will
be separated by just over 1 degree on May 28, with Venus passing to the
northwest (upper right) of Jupiter and shining more than six times
brighter than Jupiter.

June 23: Biggest Full Moon of 2013
On June 23, the moon turns full at 7:32 a.m. EDT(1132 GMT),and just 32
minutes earlier it will arrive at its closest point to the Earth in 2013
at a distance of 221,824 miles (356,991 km), making it a so-called supermoon.Expect a large range in ocean tides (exceptionally low to exceptionally high) for the next few days.

Aug. 12: The Perseid Meteor Shower
The annual Perseid meteor shower is
considered among the best of the annual displays thanks to its high
rates of up to 90-meteors-per-hour for a single observer, as well as its
reliability. The shower is beloved by summer campers and often
discovered by city dwellers who might be spending time in the country
under dark, starry skies.

Oct. 18: Penumbral Eclipse of the MoonThe moon slides through the northern part of the Earth's penumbral shadow during this lunar eclipse event. At mid-eclipse, 76 percent of the moon's diameter will be immersed in
the penumbra, probably deep enough to cause a faint, yet discernible
darkening of the moon's lower limb. The region of visibility includes
much of Asia, Europe and Africa. The central and eastern portion of
North America will get a view of the slightly darkened Hunters' Moon
during the early evening hours.

Nov. 3: Hybrid Eclipse of the Sun
This is a rather unusual solar eclipse in that, along its track, which
runs for 8,450 miles (13,600 km) across the Earth's surface, the eclipse
quickly morphs from annular to total; it is therefore known to
astronomers as a "hybrid eclipse." Truth be told, along most of the track, the eclipse appears as a total,
with a very thin annulus (or ring) of sunlight visible near the very
beginning of the track. The track of the central line of this eclipse
begins in the Atlantic about 545 miles (875 km)southwest of Bermuda. So,
along North America's Atlantic Coast, interested viewers (using proper
viewing devices, such as pinhole projection or #14 welders glass) will
only see the dark disk of the moon exiting the sun's face at sunrise. The eclipse track will pass south of the Cape Verde Islands, then curve
southeastward parallel to the African coastline. The greatest eclipse,
with 100 seconds of totality and the path width reaching a maximum of
just 36 miles (58 km), occurs approximately 250 miles (402 km) off the
coast of Liberia. The shadow track will then sweep across central
Africa, passing over sections of Gabon, Congo, Democratic Republic of
the Congo, Uganda and Kenya, before ending at sunset at the
Ethiopia-Somalia border.

Mid-November Through December: Comet ISON
On Sep. 21, 2012, two amateur astronomers (Vitali Nevski of Belarus and
Artyom Novichonok of Russia)used a telescope owned by the International
Scientific Optical Network to discover a new comet that was christened
using the acronym of the instrument used to find it: Comet ISON.
Orbital calculations indicate that comet ISON will travel closest to
the sun, less than 750,000 miles (1.2 million km) above the sun's
surface, making it a true "sungrazer," on Nov. 28 (Thanksgiving Day in
the United States). The comet could eventually be bright enough
to be visible in broad daylight around the time of its nearest approach
to the sun. It will then travel toward Earth, passing within 40 million
miles (64 million km) of our planet a month later. Since comet
ISON will become very well placed for viewing in the morning and evening
sky from the Northern Hemisphere during the following weeks, it could
become one of the most watched comets of all time.

December (all month): Dazzling VenusVenus,
the brightest of all the planets, puts on a holiday show all month
long, and what a spectacular one it is! Venus is the showiest it will be
for all of 2013 and 2014 either in the evening or morning sky. It
adorns the southwestern evening sky as much as three hours after sundown
at the beginning of the month, and 1.5 hours after sundown by New
Year's Eve. A lovely, crescent moon passes well above and to the right
of the planeton Dec. 5, and the next night Venus will reach the pinnacle
of its brilliance; Venus won’t be as bright an "evening star" again
until 2021.

Dec. 13 to 14: Geminid Meteor Shower
If there is one meteor display guaranteed to put on a very entertaining show, it is the Geminid meteor shower.
Most meteor experts now place it at the top of the list, as it
surpasses in brilliance and reliability even August's Perseids. Unfortunately, in 2013, the moon will be several days before full phase
and will light up the sky for much of the night, hiding many of the
fainter meteors. But around 4:30 a.m. (your local time), the moon
will have finally set, leaving the sky completely dark for about an
hour. That will be your chance to make as many as two meteor sightings
per minute, or 120 per hour!